Founders Without Borders

Welcome back to another episode! In this episode, we chat with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Mika Reyes, Co-Founder and CEO of Parallax, a startup that aims to help people send money and get paid from abroad faster and cheaper. She moved to the U. S. to study at Wesleyan University. Prior to starting her own company, she worked in product roles at LinkedIn, Kumu, and Ripcord. Mika is very passionate about broadening access through tech in emerging markets like her home, the Philippines, and the rest of Southeast Asia. She currently lives in New York City and is an avid dancer. Mika talks about: - growing up in the Philippines - navigating culture shock after she moved to the US for college - why she likes to write and vlog her journey in tech - what led to her leaving a comfortable job to start her own company To stay updated on future episodes, please follow Founders Without Borders on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to message us on any of our social accounts.

Welcome back to another episode! In this episode, we chat with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Arjun "Arj" Agarwal, Founder and CEO of ⁠Inaam, an Australian impact investing fintech company. He is a TedX speaker and a globally recognised entrepreneur and leader having worked across 3 continents. At 27, Arj is a social impact advocate working to bridge the global gap between capital, young people and entrepreneurship for a better tomorrow. Although he was born in India, Arj spent the majority of his life growing up in South Africa before relocating to Melbourne, Australia where he currently lives. Listen to Arj talk about: - what growing up as part of the Born Free Generation in South Africa was like - where he gets his "dabbler" personality trait from - how the loss of his father influenced his decision to start Inaam - his childhood experiences that nurtured his interest in creating an impact To stay updated on future episodes, please follow Founders Without Borders on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to message us on any of our social accounts.

Welcome to the first episode of Season 2! In this episode, we chat with ⁠⁠⁠Alvaro Morales, Co-Founder and CEO of Orb, a flexible billing engine for modern pricing models and software. Alvaro grew up in Lima, Peru and moved to the US to start his undergraduate education at MIT. Prior to founding Orb, Alvaro was an engineering leader at Asana, where he saw the challenges of pricing, packaging and billing first-hand in a company’s growth journey. He met his co-founder while working at Asana and decided to team up to build Orb about 3 years ago. Alvaro candidly talks about: - the culture shocks he had to adapt to when he first moved to the US - how he met his co-founder and the early days of Orb - viewing rejections or no's as learnings - what to look for when building out the founding team of a company - how he stays connected to his Peruvian roots while being in the US To stay updated on future episodes, please follow Founders Without Borders on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to message us on any of our social accounts.

We're back with Season 2 of the show! Get ready to hear even more incredible journeys of immigrant founders and their stories of success, failures, resilience, and everything in between. To stay updated on the latest episodes, please follow Founders Without Borders on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠X, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Welcome to the last episode of Season 1! In this episode, we chat with Minn Kim⁠, Co-Founder of Plymouth⁠, a company whose mission is to advance technological and scientific progress by enabling the world's most talented people to work in the United States. Minn is an ardent supporter of early-stage founders and has previously demonstrated her passion for the same at Ridge Ventures, On Deck, and Bloomberg Beta. Her work has been featured in TechCrunch, and she also served on the emerging Venture Capital Association board. Minn candidly shares about: - her family's journey moving to the US when she was 10 - her initial struggles trying to find a job at a startup - how being a child of the internet helped her build a strong network in the startup ecosystem - how she landed her first role at a startup and how she broke into venture - three common mistakes that early-stage founders make To stay updated on future episodes, please follow Founders Without Borders on ⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠Linkedin⁠⁠⁠. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to message us on any of our social accounts. Thank you so much for all your love and support so far! See you in a few weeks with a new season and a new set of guests!

Welcome back to another episode! In this episode, we chat with Renuka Apte, Co-Founder and CEO of Clockwork, a company that designs robots that liberates people from everyday mundane tasks with their first robot that helps with manicure. Renuka grew up in Pune, India and moved to the US for her grad school at Georgia Tech. With 13+ years of industry experience, she most recently led infrastructure teams at Dropbox, building a product that impacted 700 million users and was used over 1 billion times daily. Renuka talks about how: - her parents helped her explore every career when she was younger - her curiosity led her to explore the world of startups - Dropbox accelerated her career and helped her find mentors, and early investors in her company - to validate that you're working on the right problem Here's a link to Clockwork's WeFunder: https://wefunder.com/clockwork/ To stay updated on future episodes, please follow Founders Without Borders on ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Linkedin⁠⁠. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to message us on any of our social accounts.

Welcome back to another episode! In this episode, we chat with Michelle Marcelline, Co-Founder of Typedream, a YC-backed all-in-one no-code creator tool to build your websites, link in bio, forms, blogs, and sell online. After being inspired by the movie, The Social Network, Michelle knew she wanted to move to the US to start her own company someday. After negotiating and convincing her family in Indonesia to let her move to the US, Michelle started college in 2015 and hasn't looked back since. In addition to being featured in many publications like Tech in Asia, Michelle was also featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2022. Michelle shares how: - the Social Network inspired her to move to the US - she met her 4 co-founders in a CS 101 class - building in public helped them market their startup - she got creative when submitting her Forbes 30U30 photo - immigrant founders can approach entrepreneurship To stay updated on future episodes, please follow Founders Without Borders on ⁠Spotify⁠, ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠Twitter⁠, and ⁠Linkedin⁠. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to message us on any of our social accounts.

Welcome back to another episode! In this episode, we chat with Dr. Rabia Khan, Founder and CEO of Serna Bio, a YC-backed biotech company building the world's first map of the druggable transcriptome. She was born and raised in Pakistan, went to school in Canada, and eventually moved to the UK where she started her company. In addition to running Serna Bio, Rabia is a member of the Board of Trustees for the UK Dementia Research Institute, and an advisor to No Label Ventures, a fund investing in immigrant founders in the UK and EU. Rabia talks to Harshita about: - how she took a problem she personally faced and started Serna Bio - the flexibility and freedom a Canadian passport brought into her life - navigating a lack of support system as a result of living away from family - importance of learning how to filter people fast and getting comfortable with no's - what she wished she knew before starting Serna Bio To stay updated on future episodes, please follow Founders Without Borders on ⁠Spotify⁠, ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠Twitter⁠, and ⁠Linkedin⁠. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to message us on any of our social accounts.

Welcome back to another episode! In this episode, we chat with Julien Denaes, founder of Alpin, which was acquired by CoreView in 2019. He was born and raised in Switzerland and decided to move to the US for his wife's postdoc, when he discovered the world of startups. He jumped in and failed at his first startup despite going through Techstars but then had 2 successful exits building enterprise SaaS all of that while navigating the immigration process. Listen to Julien talk about: - selling everything and moving to the US for his wife's postdoc - being comfortable with standing out in the US - moving to Canada and back to the US while navigating visa - how "someone" recorded his pitch at a pitch competition in Montreal and applied to Techstars for him - his advice to anyone starting to think about the O-1 visa To stay updated on future episodes, please follow Founders Without Borders on ⁠Spotify⁠, ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠Twitter⁠, and ⁠Linkedin⁠. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to message us on any of our social accounts.

Welcome back to another episode! In this episode, we chat with Karthik Puvvada (commonly known as KP), founder of the Build In Public Fellowship. He is a serial entrepreneur, a passionate builder, a podcast host, angel investor and recently joined Utopic Ventures as a Partner. KP talked about how he knew he always wanted to be a founder but had to wait 12 years until he could become one because of immigration constraints. KP had some wise words of wisdom to share about: - belief capital - how he got Vanderbilt to give him a 100% scholarship and a job without meeting him - the importance of patience in one’s life - how his curiosity and drive got him to where he is today - how taking a shot and building in public got him to chat with Gary Vee and Alexis Ohanian - permissionless action as a means to achieve what you want To stay updated on future episodes, please follow Founders Without Borders on ⁠Spotify⁠, ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠Twitter⁠, and ⁠Linkedin⁠. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to message us on any of our social accounts.

We're kicking off season 1 with Nitin Pachisia, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Unshackled Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests exclusively in immigrant founders. Nitin grew up in India and moved to the US for work. After 5 years of working at Deloitte, he moved on to work at a small startup called Kno where he met his future co-founder, Manan Mehta. After leaving Kno to start his own company, he was faced with the challenges of navigating immigration while trying to build his company. His personal experience navigating immigration law led to building Unshackled. We sat down and talked about: - his childhood and the importance of education in his life - why he passed on 40 job offers in India - how he found a way to come to the US - how being curious and asking good questions led him to start Unshackled - what makes immigrant founders successful in the US - advice for immigrants looking to start a company To stay updated on future episodes, please follow Founders Without Borders on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free to message us on any of our social accounts.

Welcome to Founders Without Borders, a podcast where our host, Harshita Girase, dives deep into the journeys and stories of immigrant founders building generational businesses. To stay updated on future guests and episodes, follow us @foundersglobal on Instagram, Linkedin, and Twitter.